Boosting school staff well-being and engagement through identity leadership: The mediating role of organizational climate

Organizations and their leaders are recognized as key players in staff well-being and engagement but there is limited longitudinal research with large samples. Moreover, it is not clear how specifically leader behaviour impacts on well-being. Based on the social identity approach, we argue that school leaders who are capable of crafting and clarifying what it means to be an organizational member while actively representing the groups' interests—an identity leader—will be able to foster a positive school climate. In turn, this positive climate should result in a range of positive outcomes for school staff members, including better well-being and engagement in their work. Using a longitudinal survey of over 6000 school staff, we found support for our hypothesis: school staff members who perceived their school leaders as being identity leaders perceived a more positive school climate 1 year later, which, in turn, predicted higher levels of well-being (lower burnout, lower stress and higher self-esteem) and engagement in school outcomes (higher organizational commitment, team morale and professional development). Overall, these results underline the key role that school identity leaders play in crafting positive working environments and outcomes for staff members.